Petroleum jelly (a.k.a. petrolatum) is commonly used by itself or as an ingredient for many personal care products such as creams, lotions, and makeup (lipstick, etc.). These, as well as a number of other petroleum jelly applications, require compliance with “direct food contact” regulations.
Presently, petroleum jelly is manufactured from the heaviest crude oil refinery fraction, known as “vacuum residue.” The high boiling carcinogenic components of crude oil, which are known as polynuclear aromatics and which include asphaltenes and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, tend to be concentrated in this petroleum fraction. Therefore, a number of cleanup steps are required to meet the stringent requirements of a product used for direct skin and mouth contact. Although not a comprehensive list, these cleanup steps can include propane deasphalting, hydrogenation, solvent dewaxing, and fixed-bed adsorption (e.g., using bauxite, carbon). Despite all these cleanup methods, commercial petroleum jelly still contains several parts-per-million polynuclear aromatics components. For this reason, petroleum jelly has been listed as a probable human carcinogen in the European Union's Dangerous Substances Directive, and its use in cosmetics has been limited for this reason. According to the website http://www.health-report.co.uk the European Union's Dangerous Substances Directive includes the following caveat: “The classification as a carcinogen need not apply if the full refining history is known and it can be shown that the substance from which it is produced is not a carcinogen.”
Clearly, there is a desire for a petroleum jelly manufacturing process based on a clean, carcinogen-free hydrocarbon.